Leaders in Blockchain, Law and Legal Technology Team Up to Launch the Agreements Network

The first cohort of innovative law firms and technology companies have agreed to work together to further the launch of a public, permissioned blockchain network, the Agreements Network, which will redefine how legal products and services support the networked economy.

The law firms BakerHostetler, LegalBono and ErdosIP will be joined by tech companies Clause, Crowdcube, LexPredict, Libra, Mattereum, Monax, Rymedi, TransparentNode and Wolfram Blockchain Labs. These organizations are proven leaders in bringing practical and innovative tech solutions to life.

The Agreements Network is a new tool for delivering legal know-how to the market. In the networked economy, legal contracting happens less on paper and moves to devices and software. Using the Agreements Network, lawyers and companies can design and operate contracts to perform legal jobs, such as contract management and collecting, storing and proving evidence. The Agreements Network’s legal reference layer is a novel tool for tracking important information like chain of custody for assets but also supports creation of new products that will transform legal contracting for years to come.

The Agreements Network founding participants will collaborate to validate, refine and test operation of the technology while addressing issues that will enable adoption and scaling of legal product solutions geared to meet the explosion of demand for legal “smart contracts.” Legal products augment traditional bespoke legal services. Legal products work by executing simple legal functions automatically at the network level and can be marketed and sold across a global peer-to-peer network. Complementary legal products will bring exciting revenue and client opportunities to any lawyer, while creating a more diverse and competitive marketplace for all consumers.

“As the world moves ever further down the path of digitization the legal functions of most businesses are being forced to migrate and update their systems,” stated Casey Kuhlman, CEO of Monax. “This is, fundamentally, a good thing. It will eventually reduce errors, increase certainty, decrease risk and streamline operations at a core level.”